Our favorite moments from The Walking Dead season 9

Alpha Arrives

Season 9, episode 10, “Omega”

Sonya says:

It might seem strange to pick the arrival of the new villain as my favorite moment. But I was waiting for this moment for a long time. I’d been anticipating the Whisperers arc since it was announced that Samantha Morton was cast as Alpha. I’ve always been fascinated by Alpha and I’d been a fan of Samantha Morton’s for a long time so I just knew that she would be electrifying as Alpha, and she is. She is everything that I wanted this enigmatic, creepy, alien, otherworldly, and amoral character to be. When Alpha first appears in frame walking up to the Hilltop gate and announces herself I got chills. It was the highlight of season 9B for me.

Alpha arrives at the very end of 910, and in the next episode she demands that Hilltop return Lydia to her. Alpha is terrifying in a way that no other villain in The Walking Dead has been. She has absolute control of her people, to the point where a mother will leave her newborn baby for walkers to devour if Alpha makes a slight gesture. That is real power.

Negan had control over the Sanctuary, but he had to fight for it, torture for it, and constantly remind everyone that he was in charge to keep it. Alpha’s control goes much deeper because the Whisperers believe her ideology about the walkers and that they are the next phase of evolution. It’s disconcerting in the same way that dealing with any kind of people brainwashed by ideology is disconcerting.

Alpha’s arrival changed everything, and the upcoming Whisperer War is going to be the best conflict arc the show has ever done.